In a move that brought a sharp condemnation from Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, the House late Thursday — on a largely party-line vote — approved a nearly $40 billion reduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.

"It stinks," Mr. McGovern said at a press conference with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leading up to the vote. The House passed the measure 217-210, with 15 Republicans joining 195 Democrats in voting against it. No Democrats supported the bill.

By stiffening eligibility requirements, the legislation would cut nearly 3.8 million low-income individuals from the SNAP program in 2014.

The House legislation now will have to be reconciled with a measure approved by the Democrat-controlled Senate, which cut only $4 billion in SNAP benefits when approving its version of the farm bill. Mr. McGovern complained that the $40 billion cut, twice the amount that had been contained in a version of the farm bill that failed to clear the Republican-controlled House last summer, had never been the subject of hearings before the House Agriculture Committee, on which he serves.

"There's a misperception here in the House of Representatives that somehow it's a sweet deal for people to be able to get on food stamps — It isn't," Mr. McGovern said in a brief interview Thursday. "These cuts aren't about getting out of fraud and abuse. That's not the problem. These cuts are about trying to balance the budget by nickeling-and-diming poor people. And I think that's a rotten thing to do. "

In Worcester County, there are about 23,000 households and 42,000 individuals — approximately 5 percent of the total population — benefiting from SNAP, according to data collected a year ago by the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance.

A report recently released by the Food Research and Action Center shows that, between 2008 and 2012, 20 percent of the households in Worcester County with children could not afford sufficient food. The figure for households without children is 14.7 percent; the House SNAP bill is aimed in particular at "able-bodied" individuals with no children.

Not taking into account the legislation now before the House and Senate, SNAP benefits already have been slated for reduction because of the expiration of provisions in the 2009 economic stimulus package approved by Congress. Starting Nov. 1, every three-person household in the state receiving benefits will see a monthly cut of $29 in SNAP benefits, according to a recent report by the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.

"The proposed cuts to SNAP will eviscerate this critical nutrition benefit for low-income residents of Worcester County and Massachusetts," Patricia Baker, a senior policy analyst at the institute, said in an email. "It is unconscionable that Congress is entertaining deeper, harsher cuts to SNAP and deliberately taking food off the tables of our most vulnerable residents."

The proposed SNAP cuts would also strain local food banks and pantries, according to Jean McMurray, executive director of Worcester County Food Bank, which distributes 5.4 million pounds of food annually. Her organization makes food available to 145 partner agencies to help relieve hunger in 60 towns in central Massachusetts.

Inspired by the food stamp program that then-Sens. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and George McGovern, D-S.D., successfully expanded in the 1970s, Mr. McGovern began delivering a series of speeches on "Ending Hunger Now" earlier this year.

The most recent speech, the 22nd in the series, was delivered Wednesday to a session of the House Rules Committee, on which Mr. McGovern serves.

Those relying on SNAP food benefits spend $1.50 per meal for each day, according to Mr. McGovern, who twice in the past six years has joined with other lawmakers who sought to live off food stamps for a week.

The second occasion was this past June when he spent about $30 in a Safeway market purchasing meals for an entire week.

His shopping list shows a diet of ground turkey, brown rice, pinto beans, oats, tortillas, spaghetti sauce, inexpensive pastas, peas, red onions, carrots and pantry essentials. It took him a long time to shop because of the limited budget, he recalled — even with some help from others.

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